Islam, Women and Feminism

Bina Shah

Bina Shah

How do we understand the Asian paedophile rings without falling back on lazy, racist stereotypes of Pakistani Muslim men? This was the question I asked myself as news of the Oxford child sex – paedophile, really – ring came to light, exactly a year after police busted the Rochdale ring. The circumstances were the same: groups of men with either Pakistani or Muslim backgrounds were caught grooming young, vulnerable white girls and treating them like sexual slaves...

Nastik Durrani, New Age Islam

In the best circumstances, the Wali takes care of the affairs of the woman properly. He facilitates matters for her and stands by her though in doing so he faces many hardships and problems. But in most of the cases the Wali is not that caring, rather he takes advantage of the rule and blackmails the woman. Many wives hand over all her salary to the husband so that he escorts her to the office. Many fathers stop the education of their daughters to take revenge on their divorced wives. Many sisters have to bribe their brothers for getting their help in petty matters....

Raheel Raza

Raheel Raza

“I begin in the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Salaam Alaikum. Peace upon all those who gather here. Let’s speak to the concept of compassion and mercy. If we want to ask God for compassion and mercy, then we must try and show the same compassion and mercy for all God’s creation, which includes people of all faith, the environment and animals. We greet each other with the universal Muslim greeting of peace. Just saying “peace upon you” does not create peace....

Irna Qureshi

Irna Qureshi

Attitudes towards divorce are changing among British Muslim women. My mother’s generation regarded divorce as immoral, so sustaining a marriage for them was a lifelong project. However, for British educated Muslim women like me, divorce is an entitlement, even within Islamic law. My mother and I married men from Pakistan.....

Shobha S.V

Academics, who have studied the status of Muslim women, feel that the increasing ghettoisation and alienation of the Muslim community has resulted in the further marginalisation of the women. Observes Haseena Khan, researcher and women's rights activist: "Women are depending more and more on their community for their sustenance. This is not a particularly favourable trend, given the high levels of discrimination that already exist."....

Hafsa M. Fathima Badsha

The Hijab, or the Muslim veil, has been getting attention circa forever. It is a source of oppression to some, liberation to others, of confused “Are they Arab nuns?” and really good cover-ups on bad hair days. But more than anything, the Hijab is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Islamic faith.....

Zahir Shah Sherazi

A Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister has confirmed the Dawn.com report that women would not be allowed to vote in parts of the province under the tacit approval of PPP, ANP, JUI-F, PML-N and JI. “Yes I can confirm this agreement has taken place in Lower Dir, have reports of similar agreement from some other areas, but I am sure about Dir agreement and I had already communicated it to the Election Commission as well,” Information Minister KP Musarrat Qadeem told Dawn.com.....

Nedda Alammar

Nedda Alammar

I recently read a sterile article about sex called "What Muslim Women Really Want in the Bedroom." Given that I am a Muslim woman and have no idea what I want in the bedroom, a weakness I attribute to my Arab mentality of how shameful it would be to ask for too much, I was hoping for more of a Cosmo -style "how to" than a "here, look at the books and all the sex shops for Muslim women wanting a 'how to.''" The conversation is starting, the journalist explained...

Nastik Durrani, New Age Islam

In the west, the freedom of women and the end of slavery did not come about on religious grounds. The reason behind equality is also not religious. The end of apartheid and racism was also not achieved on religious grounds. All this happened because of the progress in political and economic sciences. In the west, equality was implemented only when the western nations became convinced that this equality was necessary for the progress and security of the society….

Dr Syed Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi

The restricted mobility of women is because of the notion of Izzat (honour). Izzat is intrinsically linked to a woman’s behaviour. Since a woman is considered to be the keeper of the family’s honour, her mobility is strictly controlled. This is fine so long as such restrictions do not impede her rights — public representation, electoral rights and participation in the country’s political process.....

Ida Lichter

Ida Lichter

Saudi Arabia funds mosques and Islamic studies in many countries, a mission rooted in the mid 18th century agreement between Prince Muhammad Ibn Saud and a Muslim cleric, Muhammad Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. The alliance legitimized the House of Saud's custody of Islam's holy cities of Mecca and Medina in exchange for the advance of Wahhabi Islam, a more extremist form of the religion.....

Badria Al-Bishr

Badria Al-Bishr

How can Muslims defend this logic? How could women go out, 1,400 years ago, five times a day to the mosque to pray with men without barriers or dividers, only protected by the saying of the Prophet (pbuh): “Do not stop Allah's [Islam’s] women from going to Allah's mosques.” Today, women do not go to mosques, but are rather warned by sheikhs that that they might be harassed even if their guardians accompany them....

Bim Adewunmi

From war to politics to art, shock tactics can be useful, powerful tools. They force the opposed to take notice, to hopefully retreat, to surrender their advantage. In the arena of human and women's rights, they are a staple -- from the burning of draft cards during the anti-Vietnam war protests of the 1960s to bra burning (myth or no) to Mohamed Bouazizi, the street vendor who set himself on fire and inadvertently roused the Tunisian Revolution --…